


One May Be Two Things

by dinosaurs_wowenough (loki_godofmischiefandlies)



Category: Assassin's Creed
Genre: Abstergo Industries, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Assassin's Creed II, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Assassin's Creed: Revelations, Gen, The Animus (Assassin's Creed), The Animus ruins everything always
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-04
Updated: 2015-08-04
Packaged: 2018-04-12 22:14:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4496727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loki_godofmischiefandlies/pseuds/dinosaurs_wowenough
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In a single glitch, the Assassins find themselves struggling for survival, a battle on two fronts, as the Animus malfunctions. Can Ezio and Desmond work together to save their Order, or will the world collapse into chaos as time crumbles around them?</p>
            </blockquote>





	One May Be Two Things

"Come on Desmond, come back to us." 

**|01001000|01100001|01100011|01101011|01100101|01100100|00001101|**

The voices were floating around in his head, making Desmond feel nauseated, but he couldn't open his eyes for a long time. When he finally did, he was standing on an island. 

"Where am I?" he asked aloud. His voice echoed across the desolate place. In his gut, he knew that this was part of the Animus. A dark part, something he hadn't ever seen before, and a part that he wished he hadn't seen. There was no answer other than his own instinct however, and so he simply walked over to the nearest rock and sat down. He could see almost the entire island from the rock, and it was completely empty. The sky flickered and glitched, surging with brightness and then fading to a cloudy gray, and for a long while Desmond was almost hypnotized by it. 

At the first sound of footsteps though, he froze. He had no weapons, no hidden blade, no sword, no bottle to smash. All that he had were his own fists and a few dark rocks if he could reach them in time. He dipped and grabbed one, whipping around and then freezing in place. 

"Buonasera," the man called out, raising a hand. Even with a hood drawn over his face, Desmond knew him. Intimately. That was the body that Desmond had possessed for what had felt like ages within the Animus. There was the telltale scar above the man's lip, the way his words formed in that gravelly yet soothing Italian voice that Desmond had almost missed when he woke up, the dark, shaggy hair. 

"Um," was all Desmond could produce. 

"Mi sono perso," Ezio continued, looking at Desmond with a bewildered expression. Desmond looked down at himself. Ah. The clothes. 

"Il mio italiano è orribile," Desmond stammered after a moment. Ezio's brows furrowed further and he stepped a bit closer to Desmond. 

"Che lingua?"

"English," Desmond croaked. He had studied a bit of Italian outside of the Animus, and the Bleeding Effect helped, but he was still useless at languages. Ezio hummed and then drew his hood back. 

"Sorry, I just assumed..." the older Assassin's voice tapered off as he looked around again. "What is this place?" 

"I'm not sure," Desmond answered honestly, dropping the stone. Ezio's eyes flashed to the rock briefly and he chuckled. 

"And who are you?" 

"My name is Desmond. Desmond Miles." 

"I am Ezio, Ezio Auditore-" 

"Da Firenze. I know," Desmond interrupted, wincing a bit at how rude it sounded. "Which sounds weird, I know. There's a lot to explain, and I don't actually know how much of it I  _can_ explain." 

"Well it looks like we will have nothing but time. So start with how you know who I am," Ezio instructed, sitting down on the rock that Desmond had been occupying just moments before. Desmond took a seat on one a bit lower, internally wincing at the fact that he felt like a child in school again, and let out a sigh. 

"So I'm from the future." 

**|01001000|01100001|01100011|01101011|01100101|01100100|00001101|**

"His brain activity is all over the place," Rebecca said, her glasses glinting as she examined the tablet in her hand. The van jostled again. 

"What's going on with him?" William asked. 

"I'm not entirely sure. Something in the Animus is interacting with him though. It's nothing I've ever seen before. It's like the Bleeding Effect, a Fugue State, and a memory activation all at once. Whatever it is, it can't be good," Rebecca replied. 

"Well I've got more bad news," Shaun said from his laptop. "We've been hacked." 

"Hacked?" 

"By Abstergo. That was the power surge we experienced shortly before Desmond entered the Animus again. Turns out the Templars were watching Lucy a bit more closely than expected," Shaun explained, snapping his laptop shut. "It's going to take me days to get the bugs out of the system, and I can't do that on this laptop. I need a computer, a powerful one, and a place where I can work that I won't get shot at." 

"Great. The things that we don't have right now," William griped, gently squeezing his son's wrist. 

"I know a place we can go," Rebecca said after a minute. They looked up at her and Shaun grinned. 

"Lead the way." 

**|01001000|01100001|01100011|01101011|01100101|01100100|00001101|**

"So you are an Assassin like myself?" Ezio asked. The two were sitting side by side now, having moved over to a weird stone archway. It was a lot more comfortable than the rocks, and now that there was some trust there neither man was on edge. 

"I mean...yes and no. There was a while where I left the Order, refused to be a part of it. I wanted a normal life, but that didn't work out too well for me. I got captured by Templars and they put me in the Animus the first time. They wanted to use me to find the Pieces of Eden. I um...I came back though. Between Altaïr and yourself, I learned a lot about what being an Assassin actually means. And when I got out of Abstergo and realized what the Templars had done to my time, to  _my_ world...I wanted to fight them for myself."

Ezio hummed at that and surveyed Desmond carefully. "You are a respectable man Desmond. It takes great courage to go back to something that you once left, and even greater courage to admit that you were wrong." 

"Thank you," Desmond said, blushing faintly. "Doesn't change things now though. We're both stuck in here, wherever here is." 

_"-mond? Desmond?"_

The voice echoed through the air between them. 

_"He's stabilizing, but we need to get him out of there before the ancestors take over."_

"Hey, that's Rebecca," Desmond breathed, looking up at the crackling sky. 

"They are trying to rescue you then," Ezio smiled, patting Desmond's shoulder once. "You are a lucky man." 

"I'm sure your friends will-" Desmond stopped himself. Right. Renaissance Italy. "I'm sure there's a way to get you home." 

"I doubt that even Leonardo will design something that advanced before he dies Desmond. I may be stuck here for a while," Ezio murmured, rubbing his thumb along the flat of his hidden blade. 

"If I get out before you, I won't rest until we get you back to your time Ezio. Besides, if you don't return, how can I exist? I'm like, a guarantee that you make it home, right?" 

Ezio's eyes widened and he nodded after a moment. 

"I suppose you are right." 

Suddenly, the sky flared brightly and both men covered their eyes with a soft yelp. The ground trembled beneath them and a blue light seeped in between Ezio's fingertips. 

"What is happening?" he yelled. 

"I don't know!" Desmond replied as a wind picked up, ripping its way across the island. The ground shook again, and then Ezio felt the world go black. 

**|01001000|01100001|01100011|01101011|01100101|01100100|00001101|**

The Animus was screeching in the room that they had set it up in, and all three Assassins rushed into the room to check on Desmond. He was completely encompassed in white light, something that the Animus itself seemed to be producing. The light surged, and all three winced as they heard a scream escape Desmond's otherwise still form, but as the brightness changed and increased, so did Desmond's yell until it was unrecognizable. 

In one moment, the light vanished. Desmond was no longer in the Animus. Instead, crumpled on the ground beside it, was a man in traditional white Assassin's robes that had not made an appearance in quite some time. 

"Desmond?" Shaun croaked, recovering first as usual. The man stirred with a groan and rolled onto his side. The hood fell back and William let out a stream of curses that would make even Desmond blush. 

"Not...Desmond," the man grunted, voice gravelly and heavily accented. "Ezio...Ezio Auditore." 

"We are so fucked." 


End file.
